Sunday, March 18, 2012

A glimpse of history

I've stumbled upon a great treasure chest. It's wealth unimaginable. Within it I've found magical scrolls like this one. Dating back to 1992, I can't believe it'll be 20 years this December. Engraved on the scroll are simple rules that back then represented certain aspects of combat that were not in the base rules and which we developed to add flavour to our adventures. These rules are the last I DMed as a few months later I would leave home for college and never look back. Until now.

Twenty years later a force I thought dead in me is surging to life with a power never before thought possible. As if these homerules had been brewing in my subconscious for decades. Coming back with the full force of fantasy role play. Pushing me to write down idea after idea and bringing me back to the same group of people who wrote these homerules. With them I am writing a whole new game to play the same old game.

These scrolls are a reminder of what this game is about. Adventure. Back then there was no internet. Way down south, closer to Antarctica tan the Equator each rule book was a treasure in itself. There were no PDFs, no extra modules nor hundreds of products we now take for granted. It was three or four books and your imagination and we did wonderful things with just that.

As I sit back now writing new rules for Era I'm greatly inspired by these memories. They remind me what the game is all about. This couldn't come at a better moment. With my old gaming group scattered over three continents, brought together by today's technology, I'm reminded that there is a world where time doesn't pass, were good friends are friends forever and adventure always awaits the brave and courageous. That world is D&D and it lives strong in all our hearts.